A friend and ally of President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton. A frequent visitor to Washington, D.C., and Sacramento for lobbying trips. A rumored candidate for governor in 2010. A widely sought speaker and one of Time Magazine’s top 25 Hispanic leaders.

Oh, and there’s that little matter of a re-election campaign going on now – one he’s expected to win by a huge margin, given the absence of high-profile challengers.

He is running the campaign as if he has no opponents at all, refusing to appear at debates or forums with any of them. Because he is not accepting city matching funds, he is not required to appear with them.

“I don’t take umbrage that people want me to debate,” Villaraigosa said. “What I say is judge me by what I’ve done. I’m going to knock on doors and talk to voters.”

What he has done is subject to debate.

Villaraigosa can tick off a range of accomplishments, from boosting the Los Angeles Police Department to improving the environment. But critics see him as more focused on publicity and jet-setting than making the city a better place.

Walter Moore, an attorney who has raised $200,000 for his own mayoral campaign, making him the leading challenger in fundraising terms, takes exception to all of Villaraigosa’s claims – reducing crime, improving the environment and even the filling of potholes and the mayor’s favorite program, the subway to the sea.

“His `subway to the sea’ is nothing more than an alliterative slogan,” Moore said. “It would cost far too much, take far too long and extend just nine miles along a single street in a city that comprises 469 square miles.”

Moore, who often uses humor and mockery in his public appearances, deadpans: “They say the mayor spends only 11percent of his time on city business. If I’m elected, I’ll spend at least twice that amount.”

Initial successes

But Villaraigosa lays claim to a series of successes, such as getting voters to agree to pay higher fees and taxes to fund 1,000 more officers in the Los Angeles Police Department – expected to be reached next year – that has brought about successive years of drops in crime.

As part of that, Villaraigosa was able to gain control of the anti-gang efforts of the city as he has worked with Police Chief Bill Bratton to reduce gang crime.

Other accomplishments he cites include:

Environment: The Department of Water and Power is on its way to 20 percent renewable sources of electricity by 2010 and 35percent by 2020. The Port of Los Angeles has a program in place to reduce truck pollution. Los Angeles International Airport’s expansion is on schedule, including green technology.

Traffic: Villaraigosa persuaded voters to approve Measure R, a half-cent sales tax measure that will help extend the subway and provide funding for improvements throughout Los Angeles County.

Education: Although he lost his effort to get full control of the Los Angeles Unified School District, he now controls 10 schools in the inner city, where he is pushing reforms. Also, his top adviser on schools, Ramon Cortines, was recently named LAUSD superintendent, and Villaraigosa has helped elect a majority of the Board of Education. He also has funded an expansion of the LA’s BEST after-school program.

Over the past three weeks, Villaraigosa has begun his re-election campaign.

He has a full-blown television campaign on the air that is expected to use all the $2.7million he raised and, in the past two weeks, has opened campaign headquarters in East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley and has been doing a series of interviews advancing his candidacy.

Events are scheduled for the final weekends leading up to an election that turned out to be less of a contest for Villaraigosa than many had expected.

There are no major well-financed challengers against him – the last was billionaire developer Rick Caruso, who decided against running this year.

Four years ago, it was a much different field, with Villaraigosa seeking to oust incumbent Mayor James Hahn, with several well-known and well-financed opponents.

The money raised by Villaraigosa this campaign is far below the 2005 election – when more than $19million was spent on the mayor’s race.

Villaraigosa has pressed his case for his accomplishments over the past four years – and has acknowledged at least some of his mistakes.

At a recent editorial board meeting at the Daily News, a sister paper of the Daily Breeze, the first thing Villaraigosa raised was his divorce from his wife of 20 years, Corina, and the later admission he was having an affair. It stalled, for a time, what had been a long honeymoon between Villaraigosa and the city.

“I’d like to start with the elephant in the room,” Villaraigosa said. “The fact is I made a big mistake in the way I handled my personal affairs. I acknowledge that and take responsibility for it.

“A lot of people had a lot of hope for me. And it hurt me. A lot of people were disappointed. I learned a lot from it.

“There are differences. But people do feel good about Los Angeles now. I think people feel mostly positive about the city.”

Others still debate

The mayor’s refusal to appear at events with the other candidates is a sore point with many of those challengers, who appeared at a forum last Sunday in the CBS Studios commissary.

Besides Moore, one of the more active candidates is David Saltsburg, who is better known as Zuma Dogg, a City Hall gadfly who reinvented himself as a self-described watchdog and community activist.

Saltsburg sheds the Zuma Dogg persona, for the most part, at forums, but he can readily resort to it to make a point.

He has developed a following of sorts and has been able to use his campaign to get a number of television and radio interviews as well as the appearances at forums throughout the city.

Part of his campaign has been against Villaraigosa and what Zuma Dogg sees as the consolidation of power within the Mayor’s Office.

“Do you trust this mayor with all this money?” he said during one recent council meeting. “I sure don’t.”

His strength, he says, lies in what he has learned from traveling around the city and talking to people about what they care for and how they would like to see the city run.

Zuma Dogg said he is motivated by the teachings of W. Edward Deming, who helped rebuild post-World War II Japan and whose production techniques were later instituted by Ford Motor Co.

Candidate David R. Hernandez, a civic community leader who has run for a number of other offices, is best known for his lawsuit challenging the county Board of Supervisors’ decision to drop a cross from its official seal.

“What’s important is for us to listen to the public,” said Hernandez, who also is involved with neighborhood councils. “We have a wealth of dedicated individuals in the community. As mayor, it would be my responsibility to empower you and make sure you know how your money is being spent.”

Phil Jennerjahn, an actor, positions himself as the conservative alternative to Moore, saying he would provide leadership that he believes Villaraigosa has failed to deliver.

“I offer a very different style of leadership,” Jennerjahn said, adding he would bring a more conservative philosophy to crack down on illegal immigration.

“The mayor hasn’t done anything special when it comes to traffic that any other competent mayor couldn’t have done,” Jennerjahn said. He believes the mayor has been too slow in growing the LAPD and should not involve himself with the LAUSD.

“The mayor has no `magic touch’ and needs to stay away from the schools,” Jennerjahn said. “I think the LAUSD is too large and might benefit in being broken down into more manageable parts.”

Craig X. Rubin, a pastor and operator of medical marijuana clinics as well as an actor, said he decided to run to try to help the city create jobs.

“We have a horrible economic situation, with 10percent of the people out of work,” Rubin said. One of his top priorities, he said, would be to seek to protect medical marijuana clinics.

He also believes Villaraigosa claims too much credit for the drop in crime in the city while raising taxes and fees. If elected, Rubin said he would roll back the increased charges.

Carlos Alavarez, the youngest candidate in the race at 22, is a legal assistant and a self-proclaimed socialist.

If elected, he said he would try to change the city’s economy to promote increases in the minimum wage and expand housing opportunity and health care to all residents.

Other candidates in the race, who did not respond to questions, include Deputy City Attorney Gordon Turner, general contractor Bruce Darian and meatpacker James Harris.

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